New citizen celebrates right to vote
Voting has always been a rite of passage in our family and I've been on the "get out and vote" soapbox in this column for many years. Last week I learned that Canadian Layne Pitcher had officially become a U.S. citizen earlier this month. When asked about the ceremony, which included another 40 or so people taking the oath in Spokane, Layne said ... it wasn't the ceremony or the swearing in that were the most profound for him. It was the realization that now he can vote. I was moved by the value and respect a newly-minted citizen placed on the right to vote. See you at the polls Layne!
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Tammy Gravelle Schneider, ZiSpa owner, started the wedding department at The Coeur d'Alene Resort where she personally coordinated more than 700 weddings in five years. For more than two decades she's run the Bridal Festival. This month she had another role ... mother of the bride when her daughter, Tawny Moore, married Ethan Brown in a destination wedding on Valentine's Day. The couple and about three dozen family members and friends traveled to Costa Rica for the beach side nuptials. While Tammy highly recommends having a wedding coordinator, she found it impossible to relegate that role. I've seen photos from the wedding and it looked lovely. I'm glad the Gravelle family had cause to celebrate such a happy occasion and am also quite certain Tammy's much-loved sister Delinda, who passed away last September, was sending hugs from Heaven.
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Captain Ken Harris, a pilot for UPS and the son of Dick and Jan Harris, is being hailed as a hero for his quick reaction during an incident last month when a man with a butcher knife threatened to kill passengers at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai. Ken, who was "deadheading" back to the states when the attack started, tackled, subdued and detained the man not once but twice before airport police arrested the suspect. Jan Harris isn't surprised at her son's heroics, but like any mother she's just grateful that all ended well.
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I love people who love their work, it's a real day brightener. Such a fellow is Steve Wicks at the drive-though window of the Post Falls McDonald's. I'd heard people comment about the voice on the speaker and decided to hear for myself. Steve didn't disappoint. He's got a great radio announcer voice and definitely makes placing an order a real Happy Meal experience.
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Today is Lani Ghiraduzzi's birthday and on Friday Ivy Fox and Tina Hough are the birthday girls. On Saturday Karen Cocoran, Mary Herrick, Dave Sheridan and newly-wed Tawny Moore Brown will blow out the candles. Sunday's celebrants are Don Pishner, Gary Dagastine and the mother-daughter duo of Robin and Allison Gerzina. On March 1 it's Faye Griffith's big day and Tuesday wish LeeAnn Cheeley and Rhonda Brouillard-Shippy happy birthday. Leap Year baby Nancy DiGiammarco won't find her Feb. 29 birthdate on the calendar this year but she's just that much closer to her "Sweet 16" birthday in 2012.
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THERE'S MORE: New stories and photos almost every day at More Main Street. Read why NIC student Gabrielle Lewis is cheering for a Texan on "American Idol" and what a KMC emergency room physician is doing since his return from providing medical care in Haiti. There's a link on the right hand rail for adding your birthday to the Main Street Birthday Club, too.
Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press. More Main Street blog is at http://moremainstreet.blogspot.com. Kerri can be reached at mainstreet@cdapress.com.